What else, besides using Tor, and turning off Javascript, does a user have to do that a website operator finally gets they don't want to be tracked?
> NoScript Tracker is a basic tracker that makes use of iframes and the Refresh HTTP header to measure how long users spend on web pages.<p>> It is ideal for getting basic usage statistics on the Tor network, where JavaScript is not an option for most users.<p>NoScript can block iframes; will that disable this tracker?<p>Also, does the Tor Browser, which includes NoScript, default to blocking iframes?
I will not be surprised at all if something like this will be soon used to circumvent adblockers replacing classic javascript based analytics on the "bright" side of the web.
Before Microsoft gave us the XMLHttpRequest, and before IFRAMEs were everywhere, this is exactly how, and with FRAMESETs and target="" one could track session length, reload other parts of a page after some given time, allow forms to interact with complex flows and various other things.<p>The "virtually invisible frame loading in the background" trick is going to be around for a long-term and seems destined to be re-learned many times over.